Melaye Is Ready To Run: ‘Here I Am, Send Me’, Eyes Kogi Guber As X-ray Reviews His Chances
The Oasis Reporters
June 1, 2019
from the senate.
The race to unseat Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State belonging to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC party whose popularity is already taking a nosedive has just gotten more and more interesting with the jolt of a declaration of intent to run by the irrepressible Dino Melaye, senator representing Kogi West.
https://twitter.com/dino_melaye/status/1134899238977097728?s=20
The ebullient Senator made his intention known on Saturday at a meeting of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Party, held at the Ayetoro Country home of Major General David Jemibewon (rtd).
The media aide to the Senator, Gideon Ayodele, who confirmed the development to Punch newspaper on Saturday said that Senator Dino Melaye was responding to the call from the PDP leaders present at the meeting, asking anyone interested in contesting to signify intention within two weeks.
“At this point, Senator Dino Melaye stood up and informed the meeting of his intention to join the race to Lugard House, the seat of Kogi state government come November,” Ayodele was further quoted as having told the newspaper so.
According to him, the party leaders present also threw the door open for anyone from the Kogi West zone to inform the party within the next two weeks to enable the party screen them and prepare to work for the contestant.
So far, Senator Dino Melaye is the only candidate from Kogi West who has shown interest.
Dino Melaye already has the senatorial seat firmly in his hands, despite the plots allegedly said to have been plotted from powerful forces to have him recalled from the Senate, which failed woefully, and a spirited effort to cage and prevent him from campaigning for reelection, which has also failed.
He has promised to defeat Gov. Yahaya Bello.
Will defeat Yahaya Bello and others. https://t.co/FDl9Yo1TyM
— Senator Dino Melaye. (SDM) (@dino_melaye) June 1, 2019
Dino Melaye is already getting a fitful of support from the tribe that matters in Kogi State, in terms of numbers.
“I’m an Igala man from Kogi state” says Sam J Noni
“Let me tell you the home truth. Somebody has volunteered to rescue us from the hands of political vipers. Let us give him the necessary support to liberate us from the hands of King Herod”
“@dino_melaye is ready to embark on the mission”, he tweeted @SamJNoni3
And indeed, if the largest tribal block, the Igala gives him a fighting chance, Yahaya Bello can just as well kiss Lugard House goodbye. His being a Buhari adopted son notwithstanding.
Yahaya Bello has served Kogi state with a monumental lack of distinction and the greatest sufferers have been the state government workers who have been denied their salaries by the administration for months on end. Some of them were said to have committed suicide due to hardship, though The Oasis Reporters was unable to confirm this.
Many Kogi citizens say that there has been no infrastructural development in the Confluence State, and ability to tap from the abundant talents and opportunities in the state has eluded the governor.
More so as the popularity of the ruling party continues to decline, Yahaya Bello who is from the Ebira ethnic group has failed to broaden his appeal beyond his enclave.
He was not even a contestant for the post of governor four years ago. He came into the picture as a runner up in the APC primary election to Prince Abubakar Audu who was set to be declared governor when he suddenly slumped and died. Bello merely inherited what he did not struggle for, but failed to manage his luck.
Should Dino Melaye clinch the PDP gubernatorial ticket fairly and squarely, chances are that the Igala tribe might support him in greater numbers, just as many may consider the four year wait after Bello to take the seat back. The contest would be all about wooing the Igala tribe, unless that big tribe pulls it’s own trick as Dino Melaye’s Okun speaking region trails behind in terms of voter population after the Igala and the Ebiras.
But will Dino Melaye be given a fighting chance?
That will unfold in the next couple of months.
